Weather issues: update [ouch!]

Remember my weather post from two days ago? So the weather conditions have changed again - and not for the better, unfortunately. Basically, the worst case happened: the temperature fell below the freezing point, but it didn't snow.

You can probably imagine what happened, but I'm going to tell you anyway: all the water on the ground started turning back into ice, forming super slippery solid layers.

So when I left the house today, I was already slightly afraid of walking through my student village, because the way from my house to the trash containers and then to the T-bane station leads downhill. However, this turned out to be quite okay. Of course, it was all ice this time:

However, as you might see, the ice was not super smooth, but a bit bumpy. That really helped with not slipping. I would guess that is because in my student village, there are not really any sidewalks (or I cannot see them due to the snow...). Therefore, pedestrians, cyclists and cars share the same paths. And my impression so far is that streets for cars are better looked after. Which makes sense to prevent a lot of car accidents, I guess.

Sidewalks, on the other hand, are basically not looked after at all. That turned out to be a problem when I was almost at the T-bane station. Just a few metres away from it, there is a bus stop. And the area around it has been the most dangerous area for quite a while already: there's always been ice underneath the snow, and as there are a lot of people walking on a few square metres, the fresh snow turns into ice more rapidly.

Well, and as there is no snow at the moment and the melted snow and ice froze again, the area around the bus stop turned into an actual hazard with the ground being almost like glass:

Yeah, and that's where I slipped and fell for real for the second time in Oslo. (The first time being my very first day in Oslo, trying to walk down from the Vettakollen viewpoint again.) Just that this time, it hurt more, as I landed on ice instead of in the snow...

De-escalatory comment: no, I did not break anything. I just got up again and continued walking my way to the T-bane, going to BI to visit the library* and even the gym.

But now, I kind of understand why you can sometimes see people walking on the streets next to the sidewalk. The danger of getting hit by a car might be smaller than the one of slipping on ice. Later today, I also saw an alternative to that: using spikes that you can attach to your normal shoes! (No, I did not take a photo of that, so I'm just linking to an Amazon product looking roughly the same. *click*) My personal alternative will probably be: walking very slowly - and hoping for snow!

* If you are concerned about this: no, I did not actually study in the library. I just borrowed my first book there. And to be honest: in the first place, I went there to print our bus tickets, because we're going to STOCKHOLM with a group of exchange students this weekend! (With the night bus, since that is the cheapest option to get there and back.) Do not expect to hear anything from me until next week! :D

Weather issues...

When people ask me, "How is it in Norway?", I usually reply something like, "A bit cold and very snowy." Ever since I arrived here, there has been a lot of snow - even for Oslo standards, I was told by several locals. That's why we were so lucky to have this great sunset at Grefsenkollen viewpoint: usually, the sky is grey with snow clouds. And as there has been a lot of snow coming down from the sky (and unlike in Mannheim and other sort of warm cities, the snow stays on the ground in Oslo!), piles of snow were built everywhere. For example, on the campus of the university (click here for my post). But also at my student accommodation:

#histudentlife, almost covered in snow

When you almost can't find the supermarket  (REMA 1000) any more...

And it was also quite entertaining to see what happened if you left your bike outside:

But at the beginning of this week, something different happened: the temperature rose to clearly above zero degrees! (I think that had only happened on one other day of my first two weeks in Oslo.) And yeah, you might be able to imagine what happened next: the snow started melting, of course. However, with such masses, the snow does not disappear within a day. So, there's currently a strange mixture of snow and water everywhere. A lot of it. Everytime I cross the street, I simultaneously cross my fingers that my boots are actually waterproof...

However, there is another problem: as removing snow from the sidewalk does not seem to be a thing here, earlier layers of snow had turned into ice some time ago. Afterwards, another layer of fresh snow had made the paths more or less safe to walk on again. I mean, yeah, there was still ice underneath, but the greater parts of the sidewalks were not particularly slippery. Just occasionally, when you didn't expect it any more... (I never actually slipped and fell, but was close enough to it several times.)

And now, with these high temperatures, the snow layers have melted. Unfortunately, the ice layers underneath are still there, at least in parts, making the paths a real adventure. This is already a struggle when the ground is even (e.g. around BI). But it becomes really exciting when you try walking up or down a hill (e.g. around my student accommodation). Unless I have a big IKEA bag or the like with me, I usually walk the way from the T-bane station to my place, as taking the bus takes basically the same time. But this week, I think I took the bus as often as in the previous two weeks combined. I really didn't feel like slipping & falling on ice at night.

The last few metres from the bus stop to my place were already nerve-racking enough:

You can never be sure if it's just snow slush or actual ice! Yeah, and as degrees below zero are somewhere in the weather forecast, I'm really hoping for more snow in the upcoming days, as walking on a solid layer of ice is not exactly my idea of a fun free-time activity, let alone a safe trip to school (or anywhere else).

Well, and if there's no snow, just ice, I can merely hope that this motivational blah blah I found at the gym on campus (yup, I finally got a membership a few days ago) is also true for the challenge of walking on ice:

Sunday afternoon at Grefsenkollen

And this is the second article about my quite exciting Sunday! So after our stroll through Grünerløkka and a quick lunch break near BI, we went to meet with some more exchange students and go on a "tiny hike" to Grefsenkollen.

Grefsenkollen is another one of the hills in the Oslo area. One of the Norwegians from my buddy group recommended going there, because the view was supposed to be really nice. According to him, it would be a "nice walk" of only 25 minutes if we got off the bus somewhere on the way between Nydalen and Grefsenkollen (yeah, the final destination of the bus was actually the top of the hill, but that would have been a bit boring, I felt). Well, that estimation might have been correct for locals knowing their way around and keeping a steady pace - not for us though. :D

So we got off the bus at Akebakken bus stop and started walking uphill. As already mentioned in the previous article, it was a nice day with lots of sunshine, so it was - except of the mostly missing sidewalk and the slightly too high number of cars passing by - quite nice:

Additionally, the view on the way up was already beautiful, giving us an idea of what it would look like from the top:

That's the Holmenkollen ski ramp in the background!

The view on the other side of the road was also quite interesting:

At some point, we walked a bit off road. Basically in the snow:

We decided to go back to the official path (the street) soon after the group photo - which turned out to be not as easy as assumed:

However, we made it back to civilization, got rid of most of the snow on/in our clothes and even made it to the top of Grefsenkollen eventually. To be precise: just in time for sunset, which had been the original plan. And since there had been a clear sky all day, the sunset was great!

Warning: I'm gonna post a lot of photos now.

I think I basically captured all phases of the sunset. :D And here are the photos to prove that we were actually there and did not just steal a bunch of photos from Google:

That's 9 different nationalities combined, by the way. ;)

The majority of us did not really feel like walking all the way down again, so we spent a bit of time inside the café/bar on top of the hill. We accidentally ended up in the premises of a chess tournament, but nobody told us to leave or play chess, so we just stayed there until it was time for our bus.

There was just one problem: the bus did not come. Our group as well as some other people were standing around where the bus was supposed to leave for at least 15 minutes until it dawned on us that the bus wouldn't come. And to make it even better, this would have been the last bus! One of the locals told us to walk downhill for about 20 minutes until we reached a bus stop where another bus line was running. Well, and that was what we did...

(End of the story: we reached the bus stop just in time to catch a bus back to Nydalen/BI and made it all back home safely. Just in case somebody was about to have a heart attack. :P)

Last but not least: the obligatory Google Maps map!

utkikkspunkt = viewpoint

(The green thingy on the left is Ullevaal Stadion.)